447
the Law Officers, because for the present at least it blocks the way not merely as a judgment unreversed but against which it was decided on deliberation not to appeal.
5. Of course I do not hesitate "ex necessitate rei" to set at naught Mr. Smale's decision that Acting Officers have not the privileges of permanent Office holders. One sixth of the Civil Officers of this Colony are expected by the Regulations to be absent on leave and their duties to be discharged "ad interim" by temporary holders of their appointments. It would therefore clearly be impossible to carry on the administration of this Government, if the Chief Justice's opinion on that subject was to command the least weight or respect. It would also have been impossible, except by interrupting the work of the Courts, to have obtained the leave of absence, which he was enjoying.
I was no applicant, because according to his theory an Acting Chief Justice could exercise the same powers as himself. I see no effective remedy for existing difficulties or for the equally disagreeable embarrassments likely to arise hereafter, when Mr. Smale resumes his position here, because it is improbable that an officer of his views would alter his consideration short of a solemn reversal of his decisions by the